Childhood As A Social Construct

What do sociologists see childhood as?

Socially constructed; created and defined by society. They argue that what people mean by childhood, and the position that children occupy in society, is not fixed but differs between different times, places and cultures.

How can we see childhood as a social construct?

By comparing the western idea of childhood today with childhood in the past and in other societies.

In society today, what is generally accepted about childhood?

That it is a special time of life and that children are fundamentally different from adults. They are regarded as physically and psychologically immature and not yet competent to tun their own lives. There is a belief that children’s lack of skills, knowledge, and experience means that they need a lengthy protected period of nurturing and socialisation before they are ready for adult society and its responsibilities.

What does Pilcher note?

That the most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage, and children in our society occupy a separate status from adults.

How is the separateness of childhood emphasised?

In several ways, for instance, through laws regulating what children are allowed, required or forbidden to do. Their difference from adults is also emphasised through differences in dress, especially for younger children, and through products and services specially for children, such as toys, food, books, entertainments, play areas and so on.

What is related to the separateness of children’s status?

The idea of childhood as a ‘golden age‘ of happiness and innocence . However, this innocence means that children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection from the dangers of the adult world and so they must be kept ‘quarantined‘ and separated from it.

What happens as a result of children being separated from adult life?

Children’s lives are lived largely in the sphere of the family and education, where adults provide for them and protect them from the outside world. Similarly, unlike adults, they lead lives of leisure and play and are largely excluded from paid work.

Is the view of childhood as a separate age-status found in all societies?

No; it is not universal.

What does Wagg note?

How childhood is socially constructed and how ‘there is no single universal childhood, experienced by all‘.

What does childhood as a social construct mean?

That while all humans go through the same stages of physical development, different cultures construct or define this process differently.

In western cultures, what are children defined as?

Vulnerable and unable to fend for themselves. However, other cultures do not necessarily see such a great difference between children and adults.

What is a good way to illustrate the social construction of childhood?

To take a comparative approach; to look at how children are seen and treated in other times and places than our own.

What does Benedict argue?

That children in simpler, non-industrial societies are generally treated differently from their modern western counterparts in three ways:

• They take responsibility at an early age.

• Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority.

• Children’s sexual is often viewed differently.

What is an example of children’ taking responsibilities at an early age in simpler societies?

Punch’s study of children in rural Bolivia found that, once children are about five years old, they are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and in the community: tasks are taken in without question or hesitation.

What is an example of less value being placed on children showing obedience to adult authority in simpler societies?

Firth found that among the Tikopia of the western pacific, doing as you are told by a grownup is regarded as a concession to be granted by the child, not a right to be expected by the child.

What is an example of children’s sexual behaviour being viewed differently in simpler societies?

Among the Trobriand Islanders of the south-west pacific, Malinowski found that adults took an attitude of ‘‘tolerance and amused in interest towards children’s sexual explorations and activities.

What else does Benedict argue?

That in many non-industrial cultures, there is much less of a dividing line between the behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults. Such evidence illustrates the key idea that childhood is not a fixed thing found universally in the same form in all human societies, but is socially constructed and so differs from culture to culture.

What do some sociologists argue about the western notions of childhood?

That they are being globalised. International humanitarian and welfare agencies have been exported and imposed on the rest of the world. western norms of what childhood should be - a separate life stage, based in the nuclear family and school, in which children are innocent, dependent and vulnerable, and have no economic role.

What are examples of the globalisation of childhood?

Campaigns against child labour, concerns about ‘street children‘ in developing countries, reflecting western views about how childhood ought to be, whereas in fact, such activity by children may be the norm for the culture and an important preparation for adult life. In this view, western-style ‘childhood‘ is spreading throughout the world. However, arguably such campaigns have little impact on the position of children in developing countries.

What do many sociologists and historians argue?

That childhood as we understand it today is a relatively recent ‘invention‘.

What does the historian Aries argue?

That in the Middle Ages, the idea of childhood did not exist. Children were not seen as having a different ‘nature’ or needs from adults - at least, not once they had passed the stage of physical dependency during infancy.

In the Middle Ages, what was childhood?

Childhood as a separate age-stage was short. Son after being weaned, the child entered wider society on much the same terms as an adult, beginning work from an early age, often in the household of another family. Children were in effect ‘mini-adults‘ with the same rights, duties and skills as adults. The law often made no distinction between children and adults, and children often faced the same severe punishments as those meted out to adults.

What evidence does Aries use to support is findings?

Works of art from the period. In these, children appear without ‘any of the characteristics of childhood: they simply have been depicted on a smaller scale‘. These paintings show children and adults dressed in the same clothing and working and playing together.

How do parental attitudes towards children in the Middle Ages differ from those today?

Shorter argues that high death rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants. For example, it was not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as ‘it‘ or to forget how many children they had.

According to aries, when did elements of the modern notion of childhood gradually begin to emerge?

From the 13th century onwards.

What elements of the modern notion of childhood gradually begin to emerge in the 13th century, according to Aries?

• Schools: they came to specialise purely in the education of the young, reflected the influence of the church, which increasingly saw children as fragile ‘creatures of God‘ in need of discipline and protection from wordly evils.

• A growing distinction between children’s and adults clothing.

• By the 28th century century, handbooks on child rearing were widely available - a sign of the growing child-centredness of family life, at least among.

According to Aries, what do such developments in childhood culminate in?

The modern ‘cult of childhood‘. He argues that we have moved from a world that did not see childhood as in any way special, to a world that is obsessed with childhood. He described the 20th century as the ‘century of the child‘.

Why have some sociologists criticised Aries for?

Arguing that childhood did not exist in the past. However, his work is valuable as it shows how childhood is socially constructed: he demonstrates how ideas about children and their social status have changed over time.

What did Pollock argue?

That it is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages, society simply had a different notion of childhood from today’s.

What are some of the changes in the 19th and 20th centuries that have contributed to the changes of the position of children?

• Laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work.

• The introduction of compulsory schooling in 1880.

• Child protection and welfare legislation.

• The growth of the idea of children’s rights.

• Declining family size and lower infant mortality rates.

• Children’s development became the subject of medical knowledge.

• Laws and policies that apply specifically to children.

It is argued that industrialisation underlies many of these.

How did laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work impact the position of children?

From being economic assets who could earn a wage, children became an economic liability, financially dependent on their parents.

How did the introduction of compulsory schooling impact the position of children?

The raising of the school laving age extended dependency.

How did child protection and welfare legislation impact the position of children?

Such acts made the welfare of the child the fundamental principle, underpinning the work of agencies such as social services.

How did declining family size and lower infant mortality rates impact the position of children?

It has encouraged parents to make a greater financial and emotional investment in the fewer children that they now have.

How did children’s development becoming the subject of medical knowledge impact the position of children?

Donzelot observes how theories of child development that began to appear from the 19th century stressed that children need supervision and protection.

How did laws and policies that apply specifically to children impact the position of children?

They have reinforced the idea that children are different from adults and so different rules must be applied to their behaviour.

What is industrialisation?

The shift from agriculture to factory production as the basis of the economy.

What do the higher standards of living and better welfare provision that industry makes possible lead to?

Lower infant mortality rates. Industrialisation is thus a key factor in bringing about the modern idea of childhood and the changed status of children